Profit sharing and firm performance in the manufacturer-retailer dual-channel supply chain

With the rapid development of e-commerce and the adoption of dual channels, increasingly manufacturers and retailers are implementing profit sharing strategies in order to improve channel coordination and supply chain performance. In this study, we focus on the strategic role played by profit sharing in a manufacturer-retailer dual-channel supply chain. We use a game theory approach to investigate this issue. We compare the expected profits that each supply chain player receives in a traditional retail system with the profits that can be achieved in a profit-sharing dual-channel system. Our results show that both the manufacturer and the retailer always benefit from a dual-channel profit-sharing strategy because of the incremental profit gains generated by the dual-channel strategy. Furthermore, the Nash (Econometrica 18:155–162, 1950) bargaining model is utilized to implement profit sharing for the manufacturer and the retailer to achieve their channel coordination. Based on our results, optimal market strategies are derived and probable paths of future research are identified.

基于博弈论和VMI的收益共享机制协调模型

以供应商和零售商组成的二阶段供应商管理库存（ＶＭＩ）供应链系统为研究对象,考虑随机需求下的ＶＭＩ系统中可能存在的滞销成本或缺货惩罚,建立了传统、Ｓｔａｃｋｅｌｂｅｒｇ博弈、Ｎａｓｈ协商的３种收益共享机制的协调模型,并得出Ｎａｓｈ协商能完美协调分散式ＶＭＩ供应链的结论．最后,通过数值算例对相关结论进行了验证和分析．     

A framework for evaluation of coordination by contracts: A case of two-level supply chains

A supply chain consists of disparate but inter-dependent members who are dependent on each other to manage various resources (such as inventory, money and information). The conflicting objectives and lack of coordination between these members may often cause uncertainties in supply and demand. Coordination may help in managing inter-dependencies and reducing uncertainties. Typically, a mechanism is required to streamline the whole supply chain and motivate all the members to be a part of the entire supply chain for sharing risks and rewards through supply chain contracts.The objective of this paper is to explore the applicability and benefits of the contracts. A two-phase framework is proposed consisting of a decision support tool and a graph-theoretic model for evaluation of coordination in a two-level supply chain. In Phase I, an analytical model is proposed based on the classical newsboy problem. Various contract mechanisms have been explored through a decision support tool based on the simulation. The effectiveness of these contracts is evaluated through a graph-theoretic model in Phase II. It is expected that by designing the contracts as per the requirements of the supply chain members as well as the whole supply chain, supply chain performance may be improved.     

基于SOA架构的医药供应链信息共享系统研究

该文针对目前医药供应链信息系统中各企业信息和业务难以共享的现状,提出了以SOA体系架构来实施医药供应链共享平台的方案,可以有效解决供应链过程中各企业信息和业务的共享问题。文中分析了医药供应链系统中的服务功能模块,根据功能模块讨论了系统实现模型与实现方法。     

Impact of demand correlation and information sharing in a capacity constrained supply chain with multiple-retailers

This paper considers a single product, two-echelon capacity constrained supply chain consisting of a supplier and two retailers facing correlated end-item demand. We use a decentralized Markov decision process with restricted observations to represent this system and conduct a numerical study to quantify the benefits of information sharing to the retailers under varying levels of supplier capacity and supply allocation mechanisms. Our results show an inverse relationship between capacity and information and indicate the retailers can achieve significant benefits as a result of the information sharing partnership.     

采纳区块链技术的两级供应链信息共享博弈

针对中小型供应链成员是否建立基于区块链技术的信息共享平台以及建立后的价值问题,考虑消费者的质量和价格敏感,分析了由零售商主导并包含两个地位不等的制造商的供应链中基于区块链技术的信息共享问题.本文分别构建传统合作模型、基于区块链技术的信息共享短期模型和长期模型,探讨不同模式下的供应链价值和模式选择.结果表明:短期而言,建立基于区块链技术的信息共享平台会扩大制造商之间的地位差距,致使强者愈强而弱者愈弱,零售商的利润会受损.长期而言,信息共享带来的质量努力效应会缩小制造商之间的差距并增加利润,零售商和整个供应链在经历短期的阵痛之后利润会显著增加.可知当消费者对价格和质量敏感性较高时,建立基于区块链技术的信息共享平台对实力较强的制造商是有利的,对实力较弱的制造商是不利的,对供应链是长期有利的,否则,不建立基于区块链技术的信息共享平台对供应链和实力较弱的制造商是有利的.     

Analysis on the effects of stock sharing on supply chain

Considering a two-period, two-part supply chain consisting of one supplier and multi-retailers, this paper studies the effects of stock sharing among retailers on the supply chain. By establishing analysis model and using simulation method, the effects of stock sharing mode and also the traditional mode without stock sharing on retailer, supplier and the whole supply chain’s performance are analyzed. The research results show that when supplier is in a dominant position, although only under certain conditions the stock sharing can stimulate retailer to increase order volume and make supplier to gain a better profit, it always make the profitability of retailer and supplier better than in the traditional mode. When supplier is in a dominant position, stock sharing can always stimulate retailer to increase their order volume, and the profitability of the retailer, supplier and the whole supply chain is always better than the traditional mode situation without stock sharing.     

不同风险防范模式下农产品供应链决策研究

针对由电商、受资金约束的农户以及龙头企业组成的农产品供应链,考虑农户破产风险和农产品的产出随机性,分别构建保险和风险分担模式下电商、农户和龙头企业的收益模型.分析每种模式下电商、农户和龙头企业的最优决策以及最优决策的影响因素.研究结果表明:风险分担模式下电商以及农户的收益始终大于保险模式;当风险分担因子超过一定值时,保...     

An efficient simulation budget allocation method incorporating regression for partitioned domains

Simulation can be a very powerful tool to help decision making in many applications but exploring multiple courses of actions can be time consuming. Numerous ranking and selection (R&S) procedures have been developed to enhance the simulation efficiency of finding the best design. To further improve efficiency, one approach is to incorporate information from across the domain into a regression equation. However, the use of a regression metamodel also inherits some typical assumptions from most regression approaches, such as the assumption of an underlying quadratic function and the simulation noise is homogeneous across the domain of interest. To extend the limitation while retaining the efficiency benefit, we propose to partition the domain of interest such that in each partition the mean of the underlying function is approximately quadratic. Our new method provides approximately optimal rules for between and within partitions that determine the number of samples allocated to each design location. The goal is to maximize the probability of correctly selecting the best design. Numerical experiments demonstrate that our new approach can dramatically enhance efficiency over existing efficient R&S methods.     

基于信号传递博弈的供应链需求信息共享机制

在随机需求信息不对称情况下,研究掌握市场需求信息的制造商如何设计契约以实现信息共享的问题.运用信号传递博弈理论,设计一种分离均衡的利润共享契约机制,利润共享参数起到了传递信息的信号作用.分析表明,此契约机制不仅可以实现信息共享,而且克服了以往研究中存在的不足,同时实现了供应链系统绩效的最优化.最后通过实例验证了所提出契约机制的有效性.     

The value of information sharing in a supply chain with a seasonal demand process

This paper considers a two echelon seasonal supply chain model that consists of one supplier and one retailer, with the assumption that external demand from the customer follows a seasonal autoregressive moving average (SARMA) process, including marketing actions that cannot be deduced from the other parameters of the demand process. In our model, the supplier and the retailer employ order-up-to policy to replenish their inventory. In order to evaluate the value of information sharing in a two echelon seasonal supply chain, three levels of information sharing proposed by Yu, Yan, and Cheng (2002) are used. The results for optimal inventory policies under these three levels of information sharing are derived. We show that the seasonal effect has an important impact on optimal inventory policies of the supplier under the three levels of information sharing. Our findings also demonstrate that the replenishment of lead time must be less than the seasonal period in order to benefit from information sharing. Thus, this result provides managers with managerial insights to improve supply chain performance through information sharing integration partnerships.     

Decentralized capacity allocation of a single-facility with fuzzy demand

Capacity allocation under uncertainty environment is an important decision problem in manufacturing. The decentralized capacity allocation of a single-facility among different organizations with fuzzy demand is investigated in this paper. The objective and demand of each organization are assumed to be private information that other organizations and the facility cannot access to. In addition, we assume organizations have limited view of the capacity and loading of the facility. First, fuzzy optimization models associated with each organization and the facility are set up. Then, based on fuzzy theory, the fuzzy optimization models are converted into parametric programming models and subsequently an interactive algorithm is proposed to solve those parametric programming models. The extra benefit of this algorithm is that the whole solving process is amenable to decentralized implementation. Finally, experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of this work under two levels of information sharing: capacity information of the facility unknown to organizations and capacity information of the facility partially known to organizations.     

Optimum profit allocation in coalitional VoD service

Although video-on-demand (VoD) services are provided by many ISPs, the amount of content provided by each VoD service is one order smaller than that provided by rental video services, so the limited content count is one of the obstacles to widespread VoD services. To solve this problem, ISPs can form a coalition with other ISPs and use content owned by other ISPs. However, to form a coalition among multiple ISPs, ISPs need to rationally allocate the profit obtained by the coalition to convince all ISPs participating in the coalition. We propose using the Shapley value of the coalitional game as the rational allocation of profit. Assuming that all but one ISP has the same number of users or (and) the same number of rare content, we derive the Shapley value in closed form and clarify the influence of the numbers of users and rare content on the coalition. We also compare the Shapley value with three general allocation models and show that the Shapley value agrees with the allocation when the profit obtained by each content delivery is equally shared by two ISPs, one that accommodates the receiving user and the other that owns the delivered content.     

Effective allocation of customers to distribution centres: A multiple ant colony optimization approach

The global and competitive business environment has identified the importance of a quick and efficient service towards the customers in the past few decades. Distribution centre (DC) plays an important role in maintaining the uninterrupted flow of goods and materials between the manufacturer and customers. The performance of the supply chain network can be easily improved by an effective or balanced allocation of customers to DCs. Improper or unbalanced allocation of customers can lead to the under- or overutilization of facilities and can further deteriorate the customer service. Performance of the DC can be judged on the basis of its ability to provide the right goods, at the right time and at the right place. The lead time or transit time to deliver the goods to the customers is an important parameter for the measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of a particular DC in a supply chain. In this paper, a multiple ant colony optimization (MACO) approach is discussed in an effort to design a balanced and efficient supply chain network that maintains the best balance of transit time and customers service. The focus of this paper is on the effective allocation of the customers to the DCs with the two-fold objective of minimization of the transit time and degree of imbalance of the DCs. MACO technique is a modified form of the traditional ant colony system, where multiple ant colonies cooperate with each other to find the best possible customer allocation pattern for the DC. The proposed technique shows better performance because of its nature of considering both positive and negative feedback in search of optimum or near-optimum results. The developed algorithm based on the proposed approach is tested on a real practical problem and the results are discussed in this paper.     

SCOlog: A logic-based approach to analysing supply chain operation dynamics

In a complex business world, characterised by globalisation and rapid rhythms of change, understanding supply chain (SC) operation dynamics is crucial. This paper describes a logic-based approach to analysing SC operation dynamics, named SCOlog. SC operation is modelled in a declarative fashion and it is simulated following rule-based execution semantics. This approach facilitates the automated explanation of simulated SC operational behaviours and performance. The automated explanation support provided by SCOlog is found to improve the understanding of the domain for non-SCM experts. Furthermore, SCOlog allows for maintainability and reusability.     

基于期权与现货市场的供应链契约式协调的研究

通过期权机制,建立了电子市场与传统契约市场共存下的供应链中各决策主体的决策模型,求得协调状况下供应商的最优价格政策、产能决策和零售商的最优购买决策,数值实例对各决策模型中的影响因素进行了敏感性分析,进一步验证了结论的有效性．